Azerbaijan still faces problems with freedom of speech and NGO activities, rights defenders state at OSCE PA session

Azerbaijan still faces problems with freedom of speech, barriers for activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and political prisoners. This was stated by rapporteurs at the special hearings organized under the 23rd session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA). The Council of State Support to NGOs is always open to dialogue, and it contributes to solving problems of concern to public society institutions. This was announced by Azai Guliev, an Azerbaijani MP and the head of the above Council.

Gyulnara Akhundova, a programme manager of regional programmes of the Danish organization "International Media Support" (IMS), has declared that most of the organization's partners "can no longer work, since the government refuses to register the grants they have received."

The manager has pointed out to the fact of imprisonment of three NGO leaders Anar Mamedli, the head of the Centre for Election Monitoring and Democracy Training (CEMDT), Bagir Suleimanly, Executive Director of the CEMDT, and Emil Mamedov, the head of the public association "Promoting Democracy".

During the past 10 years, in Azerbaijan, two journalists Elmar Guseinov and Rafiq Tagi were killed, and those crimes have not been solved yet. This was stated by Emin Guseinov, the head of the Azerbaijani Institute of Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS).

According to Sakhib Mamedov, a member of the Council of State Support of NGOs, the head of the Citizens' Labour Rights Protection League, the situation is not as bad as it has been introduced by the rapporteurs. Sakhib Mamedov has stated that during the past 10 years, only one NGO had to stop its activities in Azerbaijan.